James Hird faces Melbourne court

The suspended coach of the Essendon Football Club, James Hird, has told a Melbourne court that he didn't agree with the club's decision to call in the anti-doping body ASADA and the AFL to investigate allegations that players had been given performance-enhancing supplements. Mr Hird has also given evidence that his deed of settlement with the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute was signed under duress.

Transcript

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MARK COLVIN: The suspended coach of the Essendon Football Club, James Hird, has told a Melbourne court that he didn't agree with the club's decision to call in the anti-doping body ASADA, and the AFL, to investigate allegations that players had been given performance-enhancing supplements.

Mr Hird's also given evidence that his deed of settlement with the AFL for bringing the game into disrepute was signed under duress.

Hird and the club are challenging the legality of ASADA's investigation into the club's 2012 supplements program in the Federal Court.

Samantha Donovan was there.

What's the basis of the challenge, Sam?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well Mark, lawyers for Essendon and James Hird have told the court today that the joint investigation of supplement use by ASADA and the AFL was unlawful from the outset.

They say that ASADA didn't have the power under its act to conduct a joint investigation with a sporting body - in this case, the AFL - and that the investigation was mounted and conducted for improper purposes. And one of those improper purposes they allege was to help the AFL discipline Essendon and its staff for governance issues.

The lawyers acting for Essendon have said that ASADA's governing legislation also says ASADA must operate independently of sporting bodies, but also of government, and not pass on confidential information.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well, they say that their legislation, or ASADA's act, does give it the power, as well as in the national anti-doping scheme, that also gives it the power, and doesn't prohibit a joint investigation with a sporting body like the AFL.

In fact that it's completely consistent with it.

Tom Howe QC, for ASADA, said today that it would be "nonsense on stilts" in his words, to suggest that ASADA wasn't allowed to pass on information to the AFL relating to governance issues, in relation to anti-doping matters.

MARK COLVIN: And it's two separate cases, essentially, isn't it, or working in parallel.

So what about James Hird himself?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Well James Hird and Essendon are essentially putting the same case, Mark. They have different legal teams.

James Hird was the second witness to be called this afternoon, and immediately went into cross-examination.

One of ASADA's main arguments is that rather than object to the joint investigation of ASADA and the AFL, the Bombers actually requested it.

Under cross-examination this afternoon, James Hird's been taken back to the press conference that many of us will remember last year, when the club announced that they were calling in ASADA and the AFL to investigate.

That announcement was made by the then-chairman David Evans.

Now counsel for ASADA Sue McNicol repeatedly pressed Hird on why - if he didn't agree with ASADA and the AFL being called in to conduct a joint investigation - why he didn't disassociate himself with what was being said at that media conference.

He said he didn't know what was going to be said in advance. He said he'd told David Evans in private that he didn't agree with the investigation.

But he says that he was told not to shirk the issue, and he said that he asked Gillon McLachlan, then deputy chief of the AFL, now of course CEO, what he should do.

And he says Gillon McLachlan told him that it was best for Hird's reputation, and that of Essendon, that he sit at the table with the chairman and the CEO.

MARK COLVIN: But the bit I don't quite understand, is that he's saying that Essendon actually asked ASADA to come in with the AFL, and it seems that Essendon is now saying that the ASADA and AFL should never have joined together?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: That's exactly right Mark, and that's what counsel for ASADA were really pushing him on this afternoon, why he didn't object at that press conference.

They also referred to letters, tendered evidence of letters from his lawyers, saying that he fully cooperated with the investigation.

MARK COLVIN: And that brings us to the question of why he's now saying that he signed his statement under duress?

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Yes, well, he was charged, as we know, with bringing the game into disrepute. He said that he signed it under duress, and in response to threats and inducements today, Mark.

He didn't elaborate on what those threats and inducements were, but he again denied that he brought the game into disrepute, and he'll continue his evidence tomorrow morning.